{"id":44068,"date":"2025-11-11T01:08:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T01:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/44068\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T01:08:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T01:08:06","slug":"ag-ken-paxton-sues-texas-latino-voter-registration-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/44068\/","title":{"rendered":"AG Ken Paxton sues Texas Latino voter registration group"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\tAudio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a> announced on Monday that he has sued a nonprofit that works to increase civic participation among Latinos, alleging that the group had orchestrated \u201ca systematic, unlawful voter registration scheme\u201d and calling for it to be dissolved. <\/p>\n

Jolt Initiative condemned the lawsuit, which was filed Oct. 23, calling it \u201cmeritless\u201d and a \u201cscare tactic\u201d against the group\u2019s First Amendment activities that aim at empowering Latino voters. The attorney general\u2019s office has also in recent years targeted other organizations aiding Latinos and migrants, such as the effort to investigate and shut down<\/a> El Paso-based Annunciation House.<\/p>\n

\u201cJolt is simply the latest target of his unlawful campaign to undermine and silence civil rights groups in Texas,\u201d said Mimi Marziani, a lawyer representing the nonprofit.<\/p>\n

The background: In August 2024, Fox News host Maria Bartiromo said on X<\/a> that a friend had seen organizations registering migrants to vote outside state drivers license facilities in Fort Worth and Weatherford. But local officials, including the Parker County Republican chair, said<\/a> there was no evidence<\/a> backing the post.<\/p>\n

Bartiromo\u2019s debunked claims still prompted an attorney general investigation<\/a> into organizations including Jolt.<\/p>\n

Jolt then sued for a temporary restraining order, saying that Paxton\u2019s probe would harm the organization as well as put its workers and volunteers at risk. In October 2024, both sides agreed to pause<\/a> their legal fight and Jolt was allowed to continue its work, while the courts addressed a different lawsuit involving the tool used by Paxton to investigate the group. The attorney general\u2019s office now said in its recent court filing that it has agreed to not issue another subpoena, instead opting to launch a new lawsuit. <\/p>\n

In addition, Paxton announced<\/a> earlier this year that his office is investigating cases of \u201cpotential noncitizens\u201d casting more than 200 ballots in 2020 and 2022, which would be around one-thousandth of 1% of the votes cast during these periods. <\/p>\n

Voters also recently approved<\/a> a constitutional amendment adding language to the state\u2019s constitution saying that a person who is not a U.S. citizen cannot vote in Texas. Noncitizen voting was already illegal prior to this update. <\/p>\n

Why Texas sued: Following Bartiromo\u2019s claims, the attorney general\u2019s office sent an undercover agent to a DMV location near San Antonio to investigate by attempting to register a fake daughter \u2014 who wasn\u2019t physically with him \u2014 to vote, according to Paxton\u2019s Oct. 23 court<\/a> filing. It said a Jolt volunteer deputy registrar still instructed the agent on how to register his daughter, despite her absence.<\/p>\n

Although when the agent asked for a form to take his daughter, the Jolt volunteer said he could not let the agent have one. The agent said the volunteer then inferred that he could register his daughter to vote, which is illegal, according to the filing<\/p>\n

\u201cI stated in a question format that I couldn\u2019t have one, and [the VDR] replied that since I have her information, I could register her to vote, alluding to being a parent and that I had that right,\u201d the agent wrote. \u201cThis was inferring that I could sign her voter registration card, and while [the VDR] made this statement he overtly looked away. This is not only incorrect but illegal per election code.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paxton\u2019s filing didn\u2019t provide evidence of Jolt registering noncitizens to vote. Instead, it said the group\u2019s decision to hold voter registration drives near DMV locations \u201cilluminates its unlawful motive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is because U.S. citizens can already register to vote at any DMV with proof of citizenship,\u201d the court document said. \u201cThus, there is no need for a VDR at such locations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paxton brought the lawsuit in Tarrant County, saying that a \u201csubstantial part of the events\u201d underlying its claims took place there. <\/p>\n

\u201cJOLT is a radical, partisan operation that has, and continues to, knowingly attempt to corrupt our voter rolls and weaken the voice of lawful Texas voters,\u201d he said in a news release. \u201cI will make sure they face the full force of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Jolt says: The nonprofit said Monday that it has filed a motion asking the court to dismiss the \u201cmeritless\u201d lawsuit or to transfer the case from Tarrant County to Harris County, where Jolt is based.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, the State provides very few particularized factual allegations in its Petition to support its Motion for Leave, instead relying upon sweeping but unsupported claims about Jolt\u2019s motives, beliefs and activities,\u201d said the group\u2019s court filing.<\/p>\n

Jolt also said it will fight to defend its mission, adding that Paxton is \u201cabusing his authority\u201d in order to stop its voter registration drives. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a systematic effort to dismantle the infrastructure of Latino civic engagement in Texas,\u201d \u2068Jackie Bastard\u2069, Jolt\u2019s executive director, said in a news release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[288,1967,27,29,28,11433],"class_list":["post-44068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-elections","tag-ken-paxton","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-voter-fraud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}